(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to cooking apparatus, and specifically to cooking apparatus designed for deep frying of poultry and other food items and for steaming or boiling food items.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
Typical deep frying food cooking apparatus (deep fryers) include a container in which oil is heated and a basket or food support on which food items are placed and then lowered into the heated oil in the container to be cooked. Prior art fryers include large fryers for cooking large items such as turkeys, which often have their own support stand and heat source, and smaller fryers for cooking smaller items that can be used on a kitchen stove top or countertop. When deep frying large food items, such as turkeys or other poultry items, or smaller items such as french fries, vegetables or fish, the user is exposed to the danger of large amounts of oil at very high temperatures, typically 350xc2x0 F. or more. When inserting frozen food items or items that contain moisture into deep fryers containing hot oil, the high temperature oil causes the moisture to flash off the food items and thereby creates bubbling and turbulence within the hot oil which causes the hot oil to spatter, potentially burning the user of the fryer.
Typical prior art deep fryers include baskets with a handle that extends outward from the periphery of the basket so that a user may insert the basket into and remove the basket from the deep fryer with minimal exposure to the dangers of the spattering hot oil. The large prior art turkey or poultry fryers typically utilize a flat plate like food support which do not have the same outwardly extending handle of smaller fryers. Because of the large size of turkeys and poultry items and their associated weight, such a handle would not always provide a secure grip on the food support when inserting or removing the food support into or out of the hot oil. Therefore, the large prior art turkey and poultry fryer food supports typically have a center post that extends upwardly from the center of the food support to a top end of the post that is adapted to be connected to a handle of some type for inserting and removing the food support into and out of the hot oil. Typically, the center post also serves as a skewer upon which the turkey or poultry items are inserted so as to hold the turkey and poultry items in a centered orientation during the cooking process. These handle assemblies of prior art turkey and poultry fryers expose the user to the dangers of the spattering hot oil. Specifically, because the food supports are inserted and removed from the hot oil container by a handle that attaches to the center post of the food support, the user""s hand(s) and arm(s) are exposed to the spattering hot oil when inserting the food into and when removing the food from the deep fryer. Therefore, these prior art fryers require the user to wear protective clothing such as long sleeve shirts and gloves and/or gloves with extended gauntlets to avoid the possibility of being burned by the hot oil.
Typical food steaming or boiling apparatus (food steamers) include a container for heating and boiling water and a basket for supporting food items to be boiled or steamed in the container. The basket typically has a handle that extends across the top of the basket and, like the prior art turkey fryers, exposes the user to hot steam or boiling water when inserting or removing the basket from the container.
When steaming food or frying turkeys, it is desirable, for proper cooking, to keep the food off of the bottom surface of the container. To accomplish this, prior art turkey and poultry fryers typically utilize a food support that has legs extending downwardly from the bottom of the food support. The legs serve to position the food support and the turkey in a spaced relation from the bottom of the fryer container within which the turkey and the food support are placed. Likewise, prior art food steamers also often provide a basket that has legs extending downwardly from the bottom of the basket. The disadvantage of having legs extending downwardly from the bottom of the food support/basket is that the user may, when inserting or removing the food support/basket from the fryer/steamer, mistakenly believe that the entire food support/basket has cleared the upper most part of the container, when in fact, a leg is still extending into the container or extending outside of the container. This exposes the user to the danger that a leg of the food support may catch on a lip or side wall of the container and cause the food support basket to tip and possibly spilling its food contents, or worse knock over the container and expose the user to the dangers of the spilled hot liquid of the container.
Prior art fryers and food steamers do not provide a means of draining the liquid contents from the container. To remove the liquid contents from the container, typical prior art fryers and food steamers require the user to pour the liquid contents of the container out of the top of the container, much like pouring water from a bucket. This method of removing the liquid contents of the container exposes the user to the dangers of spilling the contents and, if still hot, burning anyone who comes in contact with the spilled liquid.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of prior art fryers and food steamers by providing a cooking apparatus that minimizes the user""s exposure to the hot contents of the cooking apparatus. The cooking apparatus of the present invention includes a food support that does not have legs extending downwardly from the food support and, therefore, does not expose the user to the potential dangers associated with the support legs protruding below the food support discussed above. Furthermore, the present invention also provides a cooking apparatus container with a spigot that allows the liquid contents to be safely drained without requiring the container to be tipped on its side to pour out the liquid contents.
In one embodiment, a cooking apparatus is provided that is adapted to be utilized with existing cooking containers that are suitable for high temperature heating of the desired cooking medium, such as oil or water. The cooking apparatus is dimensioned so that it may be easily inserted into and removed from the cooking container. The cooking apparatus includes a food support that has a horizontal member which is adapted for receiving and supporting food items placed thereon. Extending upwardly from the horizontal member is at least one vertical member having a top end. The top end has a support connector which is designed to be utilized to suspend the food support in the cooking container. A lid is provided that has a handle and a lid connector. The lid connector is complementary to and selectively connectable to the support connector. The user can selectively engage the lid connector with the support connector and use the lid to lift the food support and suspend the food support from the lid.
By utilizing a lid having a lid connector that is selectively connectable to the support connector, the user may insert or remove the food support from the cooking container using the lid. The lid provides protection for the user from the spattering of the hot liquid contents of the cooking container. The cooking apparatus of the invention thereby overcomes disadvantages of prior art fryers and food steamers.
In another embodiment, a cooking apparatus is provided with both a container and a food support. The container has a bottom surface and a side wall that extends upwardly from the container bottom surface to a top edge of the side wall. The container bottom surface and side wall define an interior of the container which is capable of holding the desired cooking medium, i.e. water or oil. The container is further capable of being heated to a high temperature for the cooking of food. The food support has a horizontal member which is adapted for supporting food items placed thereon. Extending upwardly from the horizontal member is at least one vertical member. The at least one vertical member has a support connector on it. However, in this embodiment, the support connector is designed and adapted to engage with the top edge of the container side wall and the container side wall top edge is adapted to engage with the support connector.
The at least one vertical member is dimensioned so that when the food support is placed within the container interior, the support connector engages with the side wall top edge and the horizontal member is suspended in a spaced relation from the bottom surface of the container. By having the support connector engage with the side wall top edge in order to suspend the food support in a spaced relation from the container bottom surface, the necessity of having legs extending downwardly below the horizontal member is eliminated. Therefore, the present invention overcomes the previously discussed disadvantages of the prior art fryers and food steamers having food supports with legs.
This embodiment can also be provided with a lid for the container which has lid connectors on the lid. The lid connectors are adapted to be selectively connectable to the support connectors. This allows the food support to be inserted into and removed from the container interior by the lid, providing all the protective benefits of a lid, as mentioned above. Alternatively, the food support of the cooking apparatus can be raised and lowered by a pair of grab hooks of the type used in the prior art. The grab hooks can be selectively connectable to the support connector engaged over the side wall of the container. This enables the user to lower the food support into or remove the food support from the container interior while with minimal exposure to the hot contents of the container.
In yet another embodiment, the cooking apparatus includes a spigot attached to the container side wall and in communication with the container interior. The spigot has a valve member and a spout. The valve member is selectively positionable between an opened position and a closed position relative to the spigot. The spout is in communication with the spigot when the valve member is in the open position, thereby opening a flow path from the container interior through the spigot and the spout. When the valve member is in the closed position the spout is not in communication with the spigot and the valve member effectively closes the flow path from the container interior through the spigot and the spout. By having a spigot attached to the container side wall communicating with the container interior, the liquid content of the container can be selectively drained from the container interior in a controlled fashion. The use of the spigot overcomes the prior art disadvantage of requiring the contents of the container to be dumped or poured out of the container by tipping the container horizontally, much like pouring water out of a bucket. The spigot thereby reduces the dangers associated with removing hot liquid contents from the container.
Additionally, the spigot is provided with a stop which is connected to the spigot and extends outwardly from the spigot around the valve member. The stop is dimensioned and adapted to limit movement of the valve member beyond the opened position, and thereby prevents the valve member from being removed from the spigot which would result in uncontrolled discharge of the hot container contents through the spigot.
In another embodiment, the cooking apparatus includes a container and a lid. The container has a bottom surface and a side wall that extends upwardly from the container bottom surface to a top edge of the side wall. The container bottom surface and side wall define an interior of the container which is capable of holding the desired cooking medium, i.e. water or oil. The container is further capable of being heated to a high temperature for the cooking of food. The lid is dimension to fit over the container side wall top edge and has a handle. The lid also has a peripheral edge, a vertical central axis and opposite top and bottom surfaces. The top and bottom lid surfaces slant downwardly as the top and bottom lid surfaces extend radially inwardly from the peripheral edge toward the vertical central axis and form a central depression in the lid.
By utilizing a lid with a central depression, the lid provides a point for any liquids that accumulate on the lid bottom surface to drip off of the lid. The drip point promotes the removal of liquids from the lid bottom surface-and into the container when the lid is on or above the container and minimizes the possibility of uncontrolled liquid dripping off of the lid bottom surface in undesirable locations.
Thus, the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art fryers and food steamers.